Being a horse jockey is not an occupation for the faint of heart, as those riders deal with plenty of potential hazards while doing their job. That includes “encountering an ambulance driving the wrong way down the track in the middle of a race,” which was the scary situation that unfolded in Louisiana over the weekend.
Anyone who has the skills required to ride race horses for a living knows a thing or two about controlling an animal that typically weighs around ten times as much as they do, but there’s only so much those jockeys can do to avoid ending up in a perilous position when they mount up.
On average, two jockeys die each year and another 60 are left paralyzed due to the risks that come with being thrown from a horse, and they need to be on high alert during a race to minimize the chances of things going south in the blink of an eye…